Paddling to Flat Island

Paddling is a sore subject with me… I bought my paddle board with great intentions, but getting it down to the ocean is difficult and finding calm waters is also difficult. This picture makes the water look calm, but in reality it was not easy to paddle. I bought a cart after much internet research, and it was a big fail. I’ve thought about investing in another… but it’s $130. If it works, it’s a useful buy and will help me use it more often… big if. Still contemplating it. For this excursion, we carried them using shoulder straps and it was ok but a huge effort for what it was worth.

ANYWAY. We did manage to paddle all the way to flat island. That first picture will give you some perspective- Lanikai is the pale beach at the end of the land point, and also my beloved mokes. It only took about 15 minutes. The water is super clear and it is outlined by a rocky perimeter which made it hard to explore but we walked a little bit.

Glad I’m conquering all sorts of fears and tackling these fun activities!

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Paddle boarding

A few weeks ago I put a monetary hold on buying a paddle board from a very kind woman. I got the impression that this paddle board meant a lot to her so I offered to take pictures of her boarding with her dog before she moves. She took me up on that offer and came to Lanikai yesterday. Brian took his paddle board down with me (this was his second try, his first was way too windy).

It was still windy, but he managed to stand up momentarily and got some practice in. Shortly after the last picture he fell into the water. In fact that might be mid fall.

I then walked to find Megan and her dog. I captured some really great moments of them together, I’m really proud. It was dark and cloudy which was disappointing, it made for some high ISO settings (this makes images blurrier). I also used a lens that I LOVE but doesn’t have great zoom, so when I did edit and zoom in the photos get even blurrier. But I think the essence is captured and I’m still happy with how they turned out.

It was really challenging to get this next photo because the dog was very interested in a coconut and not very interest in posing. So I managed to get the coconut to Megan, which is behind her back, but the dog was not interested in looking at the camera… I’m also bummed about missing the framing by a bit and cropping the top of the board. Enough with the critiquing, though. She loved them, and in her generosity charged me $100 less for the board.

Glad to provide some memories and can’t wait to use the board myself. We went and picked it up later and she taught me how to get it on top of the car and strapped on.

This a picture of Brian using the straps we bought to help lighten the load. He found it very helpful. Hopefully I will, too.

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